I had my front brakes serviced, can't afford the rear until next week...

[xboxist]

1999 Chevy S-10.

I had my truck's brake systems examined by a mechanic today (who I wholly trust, and has been my mechanic for almost 10 years now), and he basically said it looks like my brakes haven't been touched, ever. Later on, I confirmed that by looking at the service receipts that I keep for each vehicle. It's all factory hardware on my truck's brakes. No wonder they feel about dead.

Anyway, I didn't have enough free money this week to get everything done. He said I need basically all new hardware, front and rear. Rotors, pads, the works. So I asked him what he'd do if he were me and he said I'd start with the front since that looks marginally worse than the stuff in the rear. Fine, I say. Do it.

I picked the truck up later after work, and I was a bit disappointed to find that nothing "feels" different when I brake. I still have to step into the pedal pretty far to get any brake response. It's very loose feeling, if that makes sense. It's a little unsettling to have a couple hundred dollars worth of service done to your vehicle and not have it feel any better afterwards.

My question is, when I have the rear hardware serviced in a week or so, do you think that will make everything feel like it's working better? I'm looking for the brakes to have that new, packed-in feeling once more. Maybe you don't get that unless both front and rear are in good shape?

 

[Elstupido]

Front brakes get a huge amount of usage and stopping power, the rears just add a bit. You should really feel a difference just changing the front rotors and pads.

 

[Elstupido]

This is assuming all is equal, did he bleed and change the fluid?

 

[redgtxdi]

Another thing to keep in mind is this.........

If your brakes were fine before, but just worn down to the skin of their teeth, then you might not feel anything significant in braking peformance. You would just now have new *parts* that will last another 'cycle' of time. (Think oil. You change your car's oil to give you another x,000 miles, but you don't feel a difference)

But, FWIW, you typically won't feel a significant difference in performance until the brakes get a chance to seat w/ the rotors. (unless the brakes were really bad, broken, warped, etc.) Once that happens, you'll notice the brakes "grab" a little better. I'd say a few hundred miles will show some improvement.

 

[foghorn67]

By doing the brakes, you are doing maintenance. You won't 'feel' anything different by having the rotors and pads replaced. It just prevents you from wearing the pads so bad that you damage the calipers.
You don't want to damage the calipers. Expensive and dangerous.
The only way you would 'feel' a difference is by having a warped rotor, causing the pedal to vibrate, or the front end to shake a bit.
The long pedal travel could be air bubbles or contaminants in the brake fluid. I'm sure he flushed the fluid and bleed the brakes.
Or he might be waiting to do a fluid bleed until the rear brakes are serviced, since you start with the furthest brake from the master cylinder.
Also, 80's-90's GM vehicles are famous for long pedal travel.

 

[Colt45]

air in the lines, bad booster, or design flaw.

Being GM I'm going with option 3.

 

[xboxist]

Ok, thanks for the comments guys. I thought that I remember the brakes being much more responsive early in the vehicle's lifetime, but now you have me wondering if I'm just imagining that, and comparing my truck to my girlfriend's '08 vehicle which has incredible braking performance. The mechanic assures me that the rear system is way past due for service, so I'm going to have that done too, despite the chance that my brakes won't feel any better off.

 

[radioouman]

By the way, there is no need to bleed the brakes unless he replaced the calipers or the wheel cylinders.

 

[Mxylplyx]

My brakes on my 2000 GMC Jimmy, which should be the same hardware as your S-10, went 75K miles on all factory parts. I could have easily gone to 90 before I decided to replace everything, but that just doesnt feel right.

 

[Quiksilver]

I think ya need your mechanic to check your brake lines. Perhaps there is a very tiny leak in one of them. or The vacuum booster is going bad.

 

[Itchrelief]

Originally posted by: radioouman
By the way, there is no need to bleed the brakes unless he replaced the calipers or the wheel cylinders.

But if the brakes haven't been touched in nearly 10 years, it might be a good idea to do it anyways.

 

[dud]

Originally posted by: Elstupido
This is assuming all is equal, did he bleed and change the fluid?

QFT

You can resurface rotors and change pads all day long but if youhave air or contaminants in you brake lines ... It will not matter.

 

[rdp6]

I'd be surprised if your back brakes need service. I had a 98 ext cab, wife has 97 normal, father in law had 96 ext cab (passed to family), none needed work on the rear brakes. We beat on the rears for hours to check for wear, found plenty of material left after over 100K miles. The front brakes do pretty much all the work.

That said, the brakes 'felt' different on each vehicle. The 97 feels spongy to me, even after new rotors, calipers, lines (whoops) and new fluid. In fact, it felt the same as before the service (this was the second front brake job around 100K). My 98 felt 'tight'-er, and I only drove the 96 a few times, usually towing a boat; I only remember that it felt different from either of the other S-10s.

I tend to service brakes early, especially after having lived in San Antonio. Also, the trucks were/are mostly driven with empty cargo beds.

 

[d33pt]

you have drums in the rear. they have a large part in how the brakes "feel" and will probably make it feel much nicer once they're adjusted right. it most likely won't stop much better though. i do agree with rdp6 that they may not need replacing. my truck with 220k miles on it has about 50% in the rear still. they don't do alot of work when the truck isn't loaded.